Winter Olympics 2022: Why Beijing? Who will be the stars? 10 questions you want answers to – USA TODAY

Five Beijing Olympic storylines to know including stars to watch

The Beijing Olympics are the second Games to take place in the pandemic era. Here is what you need to know.

Michelle Hanks, USA TODAY

BEIJING Yes, were doing this again.

Less than six months after the Summer Games in Tokyo ended, the Winter Games in Beijing open Friday. The city was a controversial choice to host theGames from the onset, given its lack of actual snow, and recent events made the decision more problematic.

Chinas record on human rights is appalling, particularly its treatment of the Muslim-majority Uyghur population characterizedas genocideby the United States, which is staging a diplomatic boycott in protest, along with several other Western nations. The COVID-19 pandemic that forced a years postponement of the Tokyo Olympics is even worse because of the omicron variant, giving the term positive test a whole new meaning for athletes.

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Despite all that, Beijing organizers and the International Olympic Committee are plowing ahead with the Olympics, which run through Feb. 20, and the Paralympics, which are March 4-13. Given that inevitability, heres a look at 10 questions surrounding the Beijing Games:

Question: Why are the Beijing Games happening?

Answer: Tokyo proved that an Olympics could be held in the midst of a pandemic, so there was no way the IOC or Beijing organizers were going to cancel or even postpone theWinter Games. There is simply too much money at stake for the IOC in the form of broadcast rights and sponsorship deals, and pulling the Olympics off after Japan did it is a matter of national pride for China.

Besides, athletes really do want the chance to compete. For many, the Olympics are the pinnacle of their career, their one chance to be noticed and celebrated by people who are not already diehard fans of their sports. The window of opportunity for Olympic athletes is small, so any delay would effectively close it for many.

The COVID-19 protocols will be even stricter than they were in Tokyo, resulting in some athletes being sidelined. The venues will again be largely empty of fans, making for sterile and surreal atmospheres.

But the Beijing Games will produce their share of magical moments, as all Games do, and some athletes will find their lives changed forever. Its why the Olympics are so captivating, and these will be no different.

Q: Why are they happening in Beijing?

A: Because no one in Europe wanted them.

Cities in Germany, Poland, Sweden and Ukraine kicked the tires on a bid before deciding it wasnt worth it literally and figuratively, in most cases. The IOC had its hopes pinned on Oslo, Norway, but citizens were so turned off by the organizations arrogance and greedthat public support for the bid crumbled, and the city dropped out less than a year before the vote on a 2022 host.

That left the IOC to choose between Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, neither of which was a great option. Almaty had never hosted an event of this scale, which made the IOC wary. China has little history as a winter sports nation, to say nothing of the aforementioned lack of natural snow and broken promises of reform the last time Beijing hosted an Olympics.

But the IOC at least knew what it was getting with China. The Summer Games in 2008 were a dazzling spectacle, and Olympic officials were confident the country would spare nothing to ensure theWinter Games were equally successful. Given the vote for a 2022 host city occurred in 2015, when the IOC was knee-deep in the disorganized nightmare of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, its easy to see why stability had such appeal.

Q: What impact will COVID-19have?

A: Thoughthe IOC and Beijing organizers didnt insist that athletes be vaccinated, they did everything but, imposing a 21-day quarantine upon arrival for anyone who is not. (The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said last fall that its Olympians and Olympic hopefuls would have to be fully vaccinated.)

Just as in Tokyo, athletes needed to have two negative coronavirustests before arriving in Beijing, including one within 72 hours of departure. They are tested every day, and a closed loop system that prohibits contact with any non-Games personnel is designed to stem outbreaks.

The higher transmissibility of omicron makes it inevitable that some athletes will have their Olympic dreams cut short. Austrias Marita Kramer, the gold medal favorite in womens ski jumping, is out after testing positive for the coronavirus last weekend. U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, a three-time Olympic medalist who is a medal contender in both monobob and two-man, is in quarantine after testing positive two days after her arrival.

Still others, including Mikaela Shiffrin, Shaun White and Meyers Taylors teammate Kaillie Humphries, had their training disruptedafter getting COVID-19.

Its one of those things, Meyers Taylor told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. We were trying to do everything right, (but) its still hitting everybody.

Q: COVID-19 disruptions aside, who will be the stars of these Games?

A: Just as they did four years ago, White, Shiffrin, Chloe Kim and Nathan Chen top the list.

This is the final Olympic appearance for White, a three-time gold medalist who has done as much as anyone to transform snowboarding from its outcast origins into a mainstream sport with mass appeal. He wont be a favorite for gold, and maybe not even a medal of any color at these Olympics. At 35, White is outdone on the most gravity-defying tricks by Japans Ayumu Hirano and Australias Scotty James, among others. Hampered by an ankle injury and that bout with COVID-19, Whitestruggled in the run-up to Beijing and needed a last-minute competition in Switzerland to secure his spot on the U.S. team.

But White has become synonymous with his sport. Knowing this is his last major competition is enough to make it a must-watch.

Shiffrin has a pair of gold medals and a silver from her first two Olympic appearances and could add a bunch more in Beijing. She is arguably the best slalom skier in the sports history, setting the record for most World Cup victories in a single discipline last month with her 47th win in slalom, and she'll be a favorite for gold in slalom and giant slalom.

Shiffrin is not simply a technical specialist. If weather and her training permits, she wants to do all five Alpine racesand would be a medal contender in all of them.

A spot on the podium in any race would tie Shiffrin with Julia Mancuso for most Olympic medals by an American woman. Two more golds would match the Olympic record for Alpine skiing held by Norways Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Croatias JanicaKostelic.

At 17, Kim was the darling of the Pyeongchang Games in 2018 in South Korea. She became the youngest person to win gold in Olympic snowboarding, in the halfpipe, and her unassuming candidness she tweeted about being hangry in the middle of the competition endeared her to folks who thought corks were made for wine bottles and backside was a body part.

Kim took time off from snowboarding after Pyeongchang, spending a year at Princeton. That absence did nothing to diminish her skills, and she is once again the one everyone will be chasing.

Fingers crossed that we get the showdown between Chen and two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu that was so hotly anticipated four years ago.

Chens bomb in the short program in Pyeongchang ended any chance he had for a medal, let alone challenging Hanyu for gold. Since then,Chen has claimed three world titles and comes to Beijing with a much different outlook than he had four years ago.

"I was a kid, not really knowing exactly what the Olympics was, Chen said this week. I didnt have fun with it."

Others to keep an eye on? Meyers Taylor and Humphries, who will be medal contenders in both of the womens bobsled events; the U.S. womens hockey team; and Jessie Diggins, who could give the USA its first individual gold medal in cross-country skiing.

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Q: Wait, what happened to the NHL players?

A: Blame COVID-19. After 100-plus games were canceled in November, December and January, the league decided it needed to play through the planned three-week Olympic break or risk disrupting the rest of the regular season and the playoffs.

There will still be some notable players in Beijing.

The biggest name is Canadas Owen Power, the overall No. 1 pick in last years NHL draft. Many expectPower to be in the NHL before the season ends, and the Beijing Games will give Buffalo Sabres fans a glimpse of what they have to look forward to. Captaining Team Canada is Eric Staal, a Stanley Cup winner with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 and part of the team that won Olympic gold in Vancouver in 2010.

Although the name Jieke Kailiaosi might not be familiar, the Anglicized version will be. Jake Chelios, son of NHL Hall of Famer and four-time Olympian Chris Chelios, is one of 19 foreign-born players on Chinas roster. The younger Chelios has spent the past three seasons in Beijing playing for Kunlun Red Star, Chinas only professional hockey team.

Q: What should we expect from Beijing?

A: Beijing is the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games, and some of the venues will look familiar to those who watched the 2008 Olympics.

The Birds Nest will once again host the opening and closing ceremonies. The Water Cube has been repurposed as the Ice Cube, the venue for curling. Hockey will be played at the Beijing National Indoor Stadium, where gymnastics and trampoline were in 2008. Figure skating and short-track speedskating will take place at the Capital Indoor Stadium, used for volleyball in 2008.

Most of the outdoor events will take place outside Beijing, in Yanqing (Alpine skiing, bobsled) and Zhangjiakou (snowboarding, freestyle, cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski jumping and Nordic combined). There is little natural snowfall in either area, meaning Beijing organizers have made tons literally of artificial snow.

Q: Are there new sports or events?

A: Yes! Seven of them.

Monobob has been added for womens bobsled, and there ismens and womens Big Air in freestyle skiing. There are four new mixed-team events, in snowboard cross, aerials, short-track speedskating and ski jumping.

Q: Whats up with Russia these days?

A: The charade is the same as it was in TokyoandPyeongchang.

Technically, Russia is banned from Beijing as punishment for tampering with drug-testing data. Russia was supposed to prove it had reformed its ways from the state-sponsored doping program it devised to rig the medal count in Sochi in 2014, the scheme that earned Russia a ban from Pyeongchang.

But the IOCs definition of a ban is, shall we say, generous. Russia will still have a team in Beijing. Rather than the generic Olympic label, the athletes will be identified as representing the Russian Olympic Committee. Their uniforms will feature Russias red, white and blue colors.

So, no, not an actual ban. Again.

Q: Will athletes protest Chinas human rights abuses?

A: This will be something to watch.

Some athletes have condemned China for repressing its people and slammed the IOC for putting the Olympics here again. Under the IOCs Rule 50, they would be free to make similar statements during the Games at news conferences or in the interview area, though protests or demonstrations on the medals podium andduring competition are prohibited.

China is sensitive to any criticism, and a member of the Beijing organizing committee gave an ominous warning last month to athletes who might considerspeaking out.

Any expression that is in line with the Olympic spirit, Im sure, will be protected," Yang Shu, deputy director general of international relations for the Beijing Organizing Committee, said, according to The Washington Post. Any behavior or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against the Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment.

The IOC should make it clear to China that the committee has the backs of the athletes and will not tolerate any heavy-handedness. But the next time the IOC stands up to China will be the first.

Q: Speaking of that, where is Peng Shuai?

A: An excellent question.

The IOC has been widely criticized for helping China silence the tennis player and three-time Olympian, who has not spoken freely since she said in November that she had been sexually assaulted by a former top-ranking government official. Despite his claims that the IOC is not political, President Thomas Bach staged what was essentially a photo op with Peng as China faced international condemnation over her whereabouts.

Peng has since made several carefully orchestrated appearances. You can bet Bach will be game for one more before the Games are done.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.

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Winter Olympics 2022: Why Beijing? Who will be the stars? 10 questions you want answers to - USA TODAY